february

02.28.01

dave's a politician, mike's a dreamer. i took the spark's personality test and it called me an artist. it also said i write poetry, which was horribly, horribly wrong. on the other hand, it said that my world can be a prison of foolishness and embarrassment, which seemed to be much more accurate. (link via dave)

i probably shouldn't think that this is odd, but the national arbor day foundation wants you to vote on a national tree. all i know, is you better not vote palm tree.

the dog mauling death in san francisco has to be one of the weirdest events to hit town in awhile. every new situation just gets stranger and stranger.

i think it's funny that all the media reporting on england's outbreak of foot and mouth disease shows sad pictures of sad animals that are about to be slaughtered or have just been slaughtered. it's as though you're supposed to feel sorry for them - but they were going to be slaughtered anyway! well... it's like what troy mcclure says, "don't worry timmy, it's not really a slaughtering floor - it's more like a sluice!"

02.27.01

mo forwarded me this article from the national law journal about a malpractice case involving a seattle neurophysicist who claimed he could walk on water. it only gets weirder from there.

the bbc broadcast of ecstacy and agony documents one parkinson's patient and his experiments with ecstacy.

speaking of drugs, i'm told that the fed has dropped interest rates and a couple hits of acid. (link via jory)

02.25.01

do you have $6.5k to spare? why not go up in a plane to watch the mir burn up on re-entry? who knows, maybe you'll be able to witness some of the unidentifiable mir fungus mutate and take over our planet. please put a good word in for me with the new alien overlords. thanks.

one of my former co-workers now makes commercials for kodak. i don't know where they're going to air this one, but it's funny as shit.

i guess this means that shimmer kids is now officially twee. although i won't rest until we get listed as the most amazing live experience.

need clown shoes? you know you want 'em.

02.22.01

this email must have reached me through at least ten different people the past couple days. since it seems to have attained a cultural virus status, i felt obligated to point you to the jonah peretti/nike emails.

i have this slightly unnerving obsession about folding tiny squares of papers into animals. i couldn't find a twelve step program for it, but i did manage to find a site about the mathematics of origami. (via bird on a wire)

speaking about unnerving obsessions, do you want to buy some furniture designed by david lynch? (via gmtplus9)

i have to thank dave for forwarding me this link to yesterdayland. for the longest time, i've had this dim memory about a saturday morning cartoon where a teenage rock band gets sucked into a cartoon world called 'the flip side'. i thought i was totally crazy because nobody knew what the hell i was talking about - but now i am vindicated! now i know about kidd video!

02.20.01

i have this great anti-drug film which is co-production of d.a.r.e. and disney starring kim fields from facts of life and wil wheaton from star trek. i'm almost sad to inform you that d.a.r.e. has decided to change its strategy.

well, all the cool kids are sending me the url for all your base are belong to us. i guess i want to be a cool kid too. the tune's kind of catchy and the photoshop job is actually pretty well done. (link via isbister and christian)

in case the escher applet wasn't enough, here's mondrimat. (via swallowing tacks)

i received this on one of my mailing lists. i'm gathering my weapons now...

02.19.01

happy dead white man day! i mean... happy president's day!

i've revamped the photos section of the site. i hope you'll enjoy it.

just the other day i was telling my cow-orkers about my favorite tv version of swearing in a movie. in ghostbusters, bill murray shot an alternate take to the line "yes, your mayor, this man has no penis." in the television version, murray actually says "yes, your mayor, this man is a weasel." other films aren't so lucky to have alternate takes shot of naughty words. here's an interview with barbara harris, the woman responsible for dubbing over swear words. (via pith and vinegar)

unfortunately, soon everybody in the industry will be out of work. the writer's guild and the actor's guild may soon go on strike. prepare for more reality tv, folks!

so, one of the many surreal things that has happened this past week (including a death in front of the house and a break-in/theft) was that my mom broke both of her legs. i'm told that advance osteoporosis is a big problem for most older asian women. so take your calcium supplements, damnit.

the past life analysis machine tells me that i was a female seaman (?) in new zealand during the 1200's. arrrrrgh, matey! the shanteys sung by thar mermaids make me long for the wide open sea! (aarrrgh)

ah, what wonderful things await you for a rainy day like today. check out the escherpaint applet and make your own castrovalva! ok... so it might not quite be castrovalva, but it's still cool. (via mike's weblog)

now here's one of the funniest damn things i've seen in a long time. go to betalounge's dance fundamentals (since it's a pop-up window, you'll have to click the link when you get there). i think i'm going to learn hip hop.

02.16.01

apologies for ignoring the site - my life has suddenly become too surreal for me to really deal with.

02.12.01

jory gives me a great example of why i get so frustrated with flash. just make sure to skip the intro.

i am the boss of you proves that national icons are funny. mmmm... wheat flour paste... (via mister pants)

02.11.01

i used to wish that i could draw as well as my friends - now i envy them no longer! now i have a hero machine! (my hero knows karate) (via plasticbag.org)

i suppose if you don't want to draw superheroes, you could draw a dream. (via 50 cups)

my cow-orker thinks that my boss looks like kenny rogers.

02.08.01

if you ignore the reference to good vibrations, amazon uk gives a brief but nice history on the theremin. the instrument used for that particular beach boys tune was actually a tannarin. (just so you know, you know?)

a friend of mine is working with a non profit which is trying to puchase a warehouse to be used by san francisco artists. if you have any time or money to donate to artsf, please check out their website. hopefully with the thankful demise of many of the dotcoms, there'll be room for san francisco artists once again.

forget about disney's new california adventure attraction, mexico's museo del narco-trafico has all the entertainment you could possibly want, including an 16 foot marijuana plant on display. i think they should also include the truck that cheech and chong drive in 'up in smoke.'

02.07.01

on my recent adventure through the internet, i stumbled through this great cache of old ads that were found on microfilm. each and every ad is a classic.

terry gilliam talks about tilting at windmills and interesting differences between foreign film producers versus hollywood. (link via robot wisdom)

dave tells me that san francisco has a skate park - i can't wait to try it out!

if there's anything better than skating, it's an orgasm machine. (thanks to jory for the link)

one potato, two potato, three potato, four. the national potato promotion board gives out free potatoes in downtown san francisco. i didn't even realize that there was such a thing as the national potato board.

if there was anything that i really learned from my high school algebra class, it was that records are wonderful, wonderful things. unfortunately, i didn't learn too much math from my teacher, but i was delighted when he took me to one of the largest record swap meets in california. other than that spectacular day (when i bought the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy radio show on vinyl, along with some other audiopates), the only thing i really remember was that my teacher traded records with barry hansen on a regular basis. the onion a/v club interviews doctor demento, who teaches us a thing or two about oxides and adhesives. thank you, doctor!

02.04.01

a funny thing happened on my way to work this morning. as i was driving over the golden gate bridge into marin, there was a line of cops and other uniformed official type people leaning over the guard rail, peering down into the water. unfortunately, there was too much fog for me to see the vw bug suspended by a bungee cord about 100 feet above the water.

salon visits the mdma conference at the presidio in san francisco. i spent a somewhat mind-boggling new year's eve with dancesafe president, emmanuel sferios, who had some insightful things to say on the eve of the millennium and as it turns out, he has some equally acute observations at the end of the article.

this looks like it's been around for awhile, but there's still something rather amusing about it. what are the effects of acceleration on the hostess twinkie?

my friend ben has rematerialized from the ether and i found myself eating dinner with some good friends at what i am told is the best korean bbq joint in san francisco. the meal was delicious, but the only downside is that i now smell like cooked meat. moo.

02.04.01

this seems painful. i could be wrong, but it just seems... i wouldn't do it. dave tells me that the skateboarder eventually jumped the 58 feet to make the world record.

excellent instructions for a japanese super 8 projector! (via gmtplus9)

it took five weeks for a team from the british antartic survey to learn that penguins aren't as stupid as everyone thinks. (via metafilter)

02.03.01

the groundhog saw his shadow yesterday - which apparently gives us six more weeks of winter. in california, it seems to mean that we're getting six more weeks of terrifyingly mild weather.

i knew it all along - i'm really a boy. or at least, that's what the spark's super-scientific, incredibly accurate gender test tells me. does that mean i can pee standing up now?